As we’ve recently reported, there’s a lot of big geek movies coming this year, and according to a new poll, The Hunger Games, hitting theaters on March 23, is the most anticipated.
This should come as great news to Lion’s Gate, which is hoping to build a major franchise out of the book series.
As the Hollywood Reporter tells us, nearly a million votes came in a recent MTV poll, and Hunger Games came out on top, even beating out the final installment of Twilight, which comes out in November.
Hunger Games got 51% of the vote, followed by Breaking Dawn Part Two with 45%. (Apparently for those who filled out the poll, presumably in the young adult age range, these two far outweigh the need to see The Dark Knight and Spider-Man).
And again, this is good news for Lion’s Gate, who apparently wants to make no less than four Hunger Games movies. As Joe Drake of Lion’s Gate told the Reporter, “We have distributors who consider this as their big brand next year, the movie than can change their company.”
It’s definitely a left field project for Gary Ross, who wrote Big, Dave, and penned and directed the big screen adaptation of Seabiscuit. Ross is certainly unique and eclectic enough of a filmmaker to tackle this story, and he told Vanity Fair, “My kids turned me on to it, and I went nuts. You rarely get a tentpole that has this much emotional depth, this much character to dive into.”
And as he told the L.A. Times long ago, “I clearly deal with innocence – corruption vs. non-corruption – a lot. I like examining that question: ‘Does a lack of corruption make you stronger or weaker in a corrupt system?'”
Like Harry Potter, the Hunger Games have been a huge seller for Scholastic, and have reportedly done very well as e-books. MTV also added, “It’s hard to say what’s more exciting about finally seeing The Hunger Games on the big screen: the wild costumery? The action-packed arena sequences? The incredible cast of young up-and-comers? There’s no doubt that the odds are ever in your favor…of liking the hell out of this movie when it hits theaters.”
